Tower of Sleep

Toronto-based freelance writer and editor. Starting a PhD in Art History at McGill in the Fall. Email: saelantwerdy [at] gmail.com
marathonpacks: zedequalszee: The geography of Pitchfork’s 2011 Top 100 list. Full article/methodology is here. Richard Florida strikes again! Not much surprising here for Pitchfork followers (though it’s always interesting to see how oblivious normal people are of the artists within the site’s orbit: “Kreakshawn” is mentioned, for instance). It’s pretty clear that most years are going to be guided by work coming out of major metropolitan areas and that the shifting tides of the “creative class”s geographic bases (Austin, Portland, Vancouver, er Gothenburg) are going to creep in now and again. There’s one crucial question that I don’t think this sort of purely quantitative approach can answer, though. While it’s clear that certain artists’ work is crucially tied to a particular geographical location—Bon Iver to Eau Claire, Destroyer and Drake to Toronto—what is it that necessarily ties a guy like Clams Casino to Nutley, NJ, or Beyonce to New York City? When we think Araabmusik, is the first thing that comes to mind Providence, Rhode Island? Because they rely on the internet for circulation (or to transcend their non-metropolitan location) or simply because they’re megastars, place matters little for certain artists, right? Destroyer and Drake are not from the same city, dude! Destroyer is not “crucially tied” to Toronto! Vancouver would be aghast to hear such heresy. Canada performs real well on this chart, though, eh?

marathonpacks:

zedequalszee:

The geography of Pitchfork’s 2011 Top 100 list.

Full article/methodology is here.

Richard Florida strikes again! Not much surprising here for Pitchfork followers (though it’s always interesting to see how oblivious normal people are of the artists within the site’s orbit: “Kreakshawn” is mentioned, for instance). It’s pretty clear that most years are going to be guided by work coming out of major metropolitan areas and that the shifting tides of the “creative class”s geographic bases (Austin, Portland, Vancouver, er Gothenburg) are going to creep in now and again.

There’s one crucial question that I don’t think this sort of purely quantitative approach can answer, though. While it’s clear that certain artists’ work is crucially tied to a particular geographical location—Bon Iver to Eau Claire, Destroyer and Drake to Toronto—what is it that necessarily ties a guy like Clams Casino to Nutley, NJ, or Beyonce to New York City? When we think Araabmusik, is the first thing that comes to mind Providence, Rhode Island? Because they rely on the internet for circulation (or to transcend their non-metropolitan location) or simply because they’re megastars, place matters little for certain artists, right?

Destroyer and Drake are not from the same city, dude! Destroyer is not “crucially tied” to Toronto! Vancouver would be aghast to hear such heresy.

Canada performs real well on this chart, though, eh?

  1. somestrangeseahorse reblogged this from zedequalszee
  2. southcoasting reblogged this from marathonpacks and added:
    The geography of Pitchfork’s 2011 Top 100 list. NYC 1st, London 2nd, L.A. 3rd. Full article/methodology is here.
  3. fuckyeahwordsonmusic reblogged this from marathonpacks
  4. acuriouscity reblogged this from zedequalszee
  5. quadrillion reblogged this from zedequalszee
  6. ethanstanislawski reblogged this from marathonpacks
  7. marathonpacks reblogged this from towerofsleep and added:
    Whoopsie. Original post edited...reflect my corrected idiocy.
  8. areminder reblogged this from towerofsleep
  9. towerofsleep reblogged this from marathonpacks and added:
    Destroyer and Drake are not from the same city, dude! Destroyer is not “crucially tied” to Toronto! Vancouver would be...
  10. kittentroops reblogged this from marathonpacks
  11. rghtrrrst reblogged this from jawnwayne
  12. jawnwayne reblogged this from marathonpacks and added:
    awkward if Pitchfork were based...Y…oh, nevermind.
  13. melknee reblogged this from marathonpacks
  14. raiderato reblogged this from zedequalszee and added:
    Also covered here a few posts down. And can be contrasted with Billboard’s list as well.
  15. zedequalszee posted this